15 weeks in and some warmer weather at last!

This week the weather has been glorious! I’ve been able to sit outside with my colleagues and have picnics on the grass at Finsbury Square and it has just been great! I know it’s likely to get colder again though so I’m making sure I enjoy it while it lasts.

Well, as promised, this evening we heated up the yummy homemade sausage rolls that we got from Saddleback Farm Shop yesterday and I served them with an apple salad. It goes without saying really that they were absolutely delicious. They were chunky and full of yummy sausage meat and the pastry was buttery and delicious too.

Claire came round tonight to make one of her regular salads. The amounts used for each ingredient were adjusted to taste, though you can’t really go wrong with this combination. Tumeric in salads is apparently in at the moment and for a good reason! Very tasty. The salmon on top was a bonus and rounded off the dish well.

We were lazy again this evening and ordered pizza! This time we went for the Vegi Supreme with stuffed crusts. I must admit I prefer the stuffed crust from Pizza Hut, and not just because they did it first (I think) but because Dominos put a lot of garlic in theirs which I don’t like as much. Anyway once dipped in a load of Garlic and Herb dip you don’t notice it so much 🙂

Tonight we were out with Mark’s cousin Liz for one of her Feast of Nations events and the first we have managed to make it along to. This evening’s cuisine was Cypriot and Liz had preordered an absolute feast of food (I wasn’t kidding with the name). We had a mixed mezze with the staples of hummus, taramasalata etc with tasters of kebabs, moussaka, pastitsio, and more. The food was all incredible but the absolute highlight for me was the lamb kleftiko which is greek slow-cooked marinated lamb. The meat was so unbelievably tender I can’t describe it other than it was like I was pulling apart soft butter…but it was lamb! That alone blew my mind and then I got as far as tasting it and those who were there will testify to the fact that I then squealed with joy at how undescribably delicious it was! The flavour was just unreal! I would happily travel all the way across London for that ANY day of the week! I was also really struck by the atmosphere in this restaurant (they weren’t kidding with their name either!) where Mum Artemis really makes you feel like you’re one of her family!

Images courtesy of Liz, Feast of Nations

17/04/2015: Salmon and avocado pesto pasta – own recipe

This is another dish that we made a lot last year and was inspired by a meal a friend cooked for us one New Year. It’s quick and simple and fairly healthy with salmon and avocado. Top top – stirring mashed avocado into pesto pasta makes it deliciously creamy!

We spent a long time in the garden today with the weather being so sunny and warm (and because the garden needs a LOT of TLC but the weather helped a lot!) so we were looking for something simple but filling. I had a scan through a couple of our recipe books and came across this quesadilla recipe. Stirring chipotle chilli paste into mashed sweet potato was a complete revolution for me! So simple yet so delicious! And I wouldn’t have thought that it would work so well combined with soft goat’s cheese! Who knew?! I really enjoyed getting in a bit of a mess with topping the quesadilla quarters with lemons juice, guac, and sour cream but it was great fun.

19/04/2015: Spiced lamb wraps – Ryland Peters & Small’s The Student Cookbook: Great Grub for the Hungry and the Broke

I love this recipe for lamb pittas – seeing as though we had tortillas left over from yesterday’s quesadillas, we thought we’d do wraps instead. The only I would change is that I would leave the ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and cayenne until the meat is cooking and the pan has some more juices. As it was, the spices created a slightly grainy texture when mixed into the onion and garlic before the lamb is added to the pan. I like the fact that the fresh coriander is stirred into the pan too so that it complements rather than overpowers. Lamb mix + yoghurt + salad = delicious!